


Boot Camp

by gala_apples



Category: Bandom, Cobra Starship, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Child Abuse, Kink Discovery, Non Consensual Bondage, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-19
Updated: 2012-08-19
Packaged: 2017-11-12 10:52:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/490086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gala_apples/pseuds/gala_apples
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes discovering what you like can be the worst feeling in the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boot Camp

**Author's Note:**

> All portrayals of boot camp practices, including beatings, restraints, and mentions of sexual assault, have happened. These places are disgusting. No human being should ever be made to go to them. For more information, read [this book](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594489106/qid=1137263130/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-4724574-8832726?s=books&v=glance&n=283155), or check out [this website](http://www.nospank.net/boot.htm).

Pete thinks it's all a bit of an exaggeration, really. His parents don’t seem to care about his opinion though. Which, one could argue, is the reason he's here in the first place. They don’t care about what he thinks when he tries to explain why he can't sit through some of his classes and since he can’t exactly walk out halfway through his only option is to skip his classes altogether. They don’t care when he tries to explain that all the best bands in the world play after ten, so he's got no choice but to sneak out after curfew. Nobody ever listens and now he’s in the middle of the fucking scrub.

There are a lot of rules you’re expected to learn immediately. How to eat, how to talk, how to move, how to have bodily functions. It’s impossible, but that’s what the staff are banking on. Pete hasn’t been outside to see the scrub in weeks, and probably won’t get the privilege for a long time. He’s not good enough for outside time.

There are unwritten rules too. There are two factions of teenagers, and each hate the other. Because it wouldn’t make sense to just get tortured by the staff, the job isn’t complete unless it’s a war between the populace. The first group are teens that are sent as part of a diverted sentence so they don't actually have to go to jail. When given a choice between jail and boot camp, the parents always finds the thing that doesn’t show up on a record the better choice. Most often so does the offender, it’s harder to get into a university if you have a record. The second group are those that have been sent directly from their parents or guardians.

Most of it is just name calling. Nobody can afford to be witnessed in a fist fight, not when it means being knocked down a level and 24 hours on the slats. Still, the names are disheartening, because the children’s rhyme is crap. Being demeaned always hurts. The first group call the second the unloveables, because if even your parent wants to send you away there's something wrong with you. The unloveables return with calling them criminals.

Pete does his best to avoid it all. He doesn’t want to be the last straw for someone, and he’s had enough nights of thinking how he could coax the counsellors into getting mad enough that a punch might land in the wrong place to know that everyone is coasting on thin ice. Freckles tried to hang himself last week, now he has to walk around naked so he doesn’t have any pants to tie around his neck. It doesn't really matter the method, they've all ended up in the same place. Besides, Pete suspects they're all unloveable and certain as shit nearly all of them have done something criminal. Truancy is illegal, after all.

Pete can't get out of level one. Which sucks, because you don't leave until you graduate level five. Or until your parents' money runs out, if you’re here by method two. His parents aren’t rich, but it doesn’t matter, Pete know they won't want him back until he's fixed. Most of the people that joined the week he did -they only intake/graduate on Sundays- are on level three by now. There are a few on two, and only him still on level one.

It's not fair. There's only one rule Pete been documented as being non-compliant about. Which is partially because once he mis-answers they don't bother to count any other infractions. They just grin, punch him once or twice, and remind him that's another week at level one. It’s also because Pete’s trying really fucking hard to follow the rules. He just wants to graduate through the system and get out.

It’s just difficult to remember. Pete used to talk a lot, at home. They’re not often permitted to talk here, slaps and punches discourage it, and you never know when they’ll decide to give you time on the slats. Pete hates lying face down, the boards spread unevenly beneath him. The pressure bruises start to form after the first hour, by the fourth or the sixth or whenever they decide you’ve had enough, his stomach or legs are black and blue. When he’s allowed to talk, he’s always too excited to refer to himself as ‘this learner’. He always says ‘I’, and then it’s another week at level one.

He doesn’t always feel entirely alone. There are two from the Sunday after his arrival that are still level one. Pete hasn’t heard any whispered rumours, seemingly nobody cares enough to risk the passing of information. But it’s easy to tell why. The tall one keeps using the art therapy supplies to graffiti himself. They’re not supposed to go into the room, it’s only there because they need to have it for the routine inspections, just like they need to have fruit and meat in the kitchen, and television in the common room. The tall one goes in anyway, and spits in the watercolour paints until he can streak his skin. _This learner believes in the power of neon_ are always his words before he’s dragged off to get cleaned with a hose outside, then left naked in one of the calming rooms. The other one doesn't respond to at least fifty percent of the prompts given to him by the counselors, each ignored word resulting in another mark or bruise.

Most of the time Pete doesn’t worry about them. You can’t afford to care about others, not really. And as far as Pete knows, nobody’s died in this facility. There are bruises and cuts and broken bones, but those all heal. Pete only gets concerned when it's James. He is a creepy fuck of a counselor that offers to bring down Mute’s count of weeks at level one if he does 'stuff'. Mute always says no, but Pete worries some day maybe he won't. A lot of the learners are jealous, perfectly willing to open their mouths for a pass to level three. He doesn’t know what he’d do in that situation, and he probably won’t be put in it anyway, none of the staff like him. He just hopes that Mute stays strong.

Pete’s least favourite punishment is fetal position. If they decide to claim you’re going to hurt yourself unrestrained, they’ll wrap this collar around your neck with a chain that connects to cuffs around your ankles. The only way to not choke is by curling up on the floor, tucking your legs in as close as you can to your body. After awhile your legs start to burn, then cramp, and then they just go numb altogether.

He doesn’t hate it for the pain. He wishes he could. He hates it because he likes it. It's disturbing how much he likes it. The only thing he can think is that it’s Stockholm syndrome. He’s seen it in every level four and five learner, they’ve all grown to think that the counselors are right, that they deserve everything they get, and all the other learners deserve everything that happens to them. Sometimes the level fives help the counselors with restraints, or dragging people to calming rooms. They’re always present for the ego management sessions, thirty males standing, surrounding the person with the ego sitting in the center, telling them exactly why they’re useless and disgusting. If getting hard from the fetal position punishment is Stockholm he's going to kill himself before it goes too far.

It's even worse when a few days later he sees Mute and Graffiti in them, two of three learners being restrained in the middle of the common room. Pete flares with excitement, immediately hating himself for it. It feels like he's on Their side. Which he isn't. At all. Ever. He’s torn between wishing he could go to the bathroom and jerk off, and wishing he could just bash his head against window and slice his throat open. But there are no doors for the stalls, and the glass is wire enforced, so Pete settles for vomiting in the middle of the room. Mute and Graffiti inch away from the puke as best they can, and a few counselors swarm in on him and begin asking if he thinks he’s too good for the food. Pete closes his eyes and stammers _I’m sorry_ , and they tell him it’s another week for level one for thinking he’s good enough to be his own person. He’ll never get out.


End file.
